By Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal
Aug 19 (Reuters) - The main U.S. indexes rebounded on Wednesday after a steep tech selloff in the previous session as easing government bond yields boosted risk appetite, while markets assessed a flood of positive corporate updates including from vaccine-maker Moderna.
Moderna's shares more than doubled after its personalized mRNA cancer therapy developed with Merck cut the risk of melanoma recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial.
Merck jumped 11.2% and was the biggest
boost on the blue-chip Dow.
Biotech peers also gained. Novavax was up 6% while U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech rallied 21%. The S&P 500 healthcare sector rose 2.9% to hit a record high, providing the biggest support to the benchmark index.
Information technology stocks on the S&P 500 were flat. Chipmaker Broadcom lost 4% after Marvell Technologies issued Alphabet's Google a warrant to buy a stake worth about $12.18 billion.
Marvell surged 9.8%, bucking the decline in chipmakers. The broader semiconductor index shed 1.3%.
"Most tech companies are priced mainly on forward earnings expectations, and when interest rates creep up, those expectations are worth less and the stocks are worth less," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
At 12:18 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 218.24 points, or 0.41%, to 53,564.38, the S&P 500 gained 45.89 points, or 0.60%, to 7,737.65, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 156.02 points, or 0.59%, to 26,445.73.
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond retreated from its highest level since 2007 after the U.S. Treasury announced it would double the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated bonds. It was last at 5.203%.
Concerns over ballooning government debt and rising inflation pushed global bond yields to multi-decade highs on Tuesday, hitting risk assets, especially high-flying chip stocks that have taken U.S. markets to record highs this year.
"Inflation does remain a concern and elevated oil prices are contributing to that. If the Federal Reserve is not going to do anything about it, the bond market will," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
In earnings, Target was up 5% after raising its annual sales forecast, while Lowe's gained 2.4% despite trimming its annual sales growth forecast.
Estee Lauder jumped more than 16.7% after the cosmetics maker forecast annual profit above Wall Street estimates.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said no talks were taking place with Iran and insisted the Strait of Hormuz was open, contradicting Iran's assertion that the strait remained shut to shipping.
Brent crude futures added 1% to hit near three-week highs.
Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's July meeting later in the day will be parsed for a clearer picture of the central bank's policy outlook.
Traders currently see at least one 25-basis-point rate hike from the Fed by the end of 2026, according to data compiled by LSEG. The odds of a hike as soon as September, however, have decreased significantly following last week's tame inflation data.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.42-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.74-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 94 new highs and 66 new lows.
(Reporting by Avinash P and Purvi Agawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
